Case Study - Margaret Mackleworth

Posted on 28 June, 2016

Essex based Margaret Mackleworth is in her early seventies and has been home sitting for eleven years since a friend saw an advert in The Lady and sent it to her knowing that she sometimes looked after a friend’s dog.

When Margaret started home sitting she was working part time in the catering industry and did homesits on the weekends or in her holidays.

These days she homesits more regularly, but as she loves to be busy she also still works in the catering industry on a casual basis. Margaret loves that she can fit both jobs around each other and also her family commitments.

In the past Margaret had owned a Border Collie and loves animals, particularly dogs.However, her current landlord doesn’t allow pets so home sitting gives her the perfect opportunity to spend time with animals.

Most homesits have involved looking after dogs or cats, although she’s looked after hamsters too. Some people use Homesitters to look after their home while they’re away for security reasons but Margaret prefers it when there are also pets to keep her occupied.

Margaret says, “Home sitting is the perfect job for me, I love to visit new places and meet new people and I find that dog walking is very sociable! One of my favourite things is to go for long walks in the countryside so I enjoy rural homesits with dogs that I can take for a walk.

If you like animals and travelling I’d thoroughly recommend joining Homesitters – I can’t speak highly enough of them. They are lovely people and I find it very reassuring that there is 24 hour support – although I’ve never had to use it – and I like the security of having to check in with them every morning, especially as I’m on my own.”

Some clients prefer to use the same homesitter every time they book if possible so that their pets can be cared for by a familiar person. Margaret has some clients that she regularly homesits for, including one lady who has moved house four times in recent years and used Margaret at each of those houses to look after her cats.

With over a hundred homesits under her belt, she has a tip for others considering the role which is to have a hobby to keep them occupied in the evenings. For Margaret this is doing jigsaw puzzles and she always takes one with her wherever she is located.

If becoming a homesitter sounds like something you'd like to do, please click here to find out more.